Gear Review: The SolarBag Water Purifier

One of the first rules of preparedness is to ensure that you have an adequate supply of water to sustain your drinking, cooking and hygiene needs in the days and weeks following a disaster. To that end, I am positive that we each do the best we can given space and budget constraints.

Now what if I were to tell you that with a 4 ounce BPA free plastic bag and some sunlight, you could take raw water and purify up to 2 gallons of water a day? Impressive right? Well there is more. What if I told you that the same bag could be re-used hundreds of times.

The Puralytics SolarBag

First let me tell you a little bit about the SolarBag itself.

It was developed and is manufactured here in the United States (Oregon actually) by Puralytics. It is simple to operate, using only sunlight to activate the nanotechnology coated mesh insert to purify water. No chemicals or pumps are required, and it can be reused hundreds of times. Best of all is so easy to use that a child could do it.

According to the specifications, it filters out all sorts of contaminants including bacteria, viruses, protozoa, pesticides, herbicides, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, arsenic, lead and mercury. Read through that list again because it is important. You did know that typical particle filters, tablets, and even boiling, do not remove the chemical toxins in drinking water, right?

Rather than tell you how it works, let me show you.

Adding non-potable, non-drinkable water into a bucket. This is the “free” water we use in our garden.

Fitting the included filter bag over the top of the bag. The filter is attached to the bag and is also reusable.

Adding water was easy; I just poured it into the bag using a water pitcher.

Tea-colored raw water – definitely not drinkable.

Since this is the first time using a SolarBag, I added a drop of the included blue drops to turn the water blue. When the water is clear, the purification process is complete. You only need to do this once for each type of weather condition. The purpose is to let you know how long the purification process will take.

Set the SolarBag out where it will be exposed to sunlight or open sky. It should be purified in two to three hours on a sunny day, or four to six hours on a cloudy day or if the source water is tea colored like mine.

If you are interested in more detailed instructions, you can download a fact sheet here.

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How to Enter the Puralytics SolarBag Giveaway – The Rules

Here is the part you have been waiting for. All you need to do to enter the giveaway is to select one or more of the options on the Rafflecopter form below. You can sign in with your email account or Facebook, the choice is yours.

The best way to start is by clicking on “Easy Entry for Everyone”. After that, each option you select represents an additional entry. There are a number of different options so pick and choose or select them all.

Please note that the winning item can only be shipped to an address in the United States or Canada.

The giveaway will end on Thursday, July 17th at 6PM PDT and the winner will be notified by email on or before July 19th. Note that the winning entry will be verified and the winner will have 48 hours to respond.

The “Rafflecopter”

The Final Word

I had no idea that something like this even existed. It is so easy to get caught up with the need for solar panels to power electronic gizmos that we forget that the sun can be harnessed for other, equal if not more important uses.

The SolarBag is well priced (currently about $80) and is available at Amazon as well as other online retailers. I was impressed and I know you will be to. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway!

Oh, and by the way, the SolarBag is featured in the new movie, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, opening this week. How about that for good timing?

Enjoy your next adventure through common sense and thoughtful preparation!Gaye

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Spotlight Item: The Puralytics SolarBag Water Purifier is an easy to use water purification system that is lightweight and portable. Where is really excels is in removing contaminants from water, plus, it can be used hundreds of time. Highly recommended!

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Comments

I also would love to win one of these. If not, then it is on my “to get one as soon as I have saved up enough money” list. As a fellow Washingtonian I am really learning a lot here. Enjoy the heat 🙂 Actually I do not so my face is :-(. Peggy.

We have our own well, which has great tasting water, but we do extensive camping. I’ve been looking for solutions to hauling in large amounts of water. Not to mention it would be a great addition to my Preps!

Love the OPTION of solar purification! As always thank you so much for allowing me to read your blog … I find your posts to be very informative, full of humor and light-hearted fun, and very educational. Thank you. 🙂

I am working with energy movement techniques and make purification/reenergizing set ups for our drinking water. I have also created an organite well topper that transforms and energizes my water to deal with our health issues. we seem to be having very good results. My husbands dementia has improved, my old dogs arthritis has improved, I live in a desert area on bentonite clay and have incredible orchard and garden. your article is very interesting

@Peggy – I dug into the tech sheets at the Puralytics website but did not see any indication that fluoride would be removed. I suggest a Berkey with the fluoride cartridges – I know for sure that those work.

Very useful item. Joins the long “I want one” list. We have water stored and tablets, but calculating up what my family of four has vs what we need for more than a month.. Oh, lacking is the word I would use. This would be a great addition to the prep boxes.

At the present time, my husband and I each have a Lifestraw, as well as Coleman PA+neutralizing tablets. We have the chemical used in our hot tub, as well as Chlorox. We also have the instructions printed out to use a homemade filter using charcoal and sand.

I use some filter straws and plan on setting up a system to boil water and collect the water vapor (a cooking pot with a glass lid, remove the handle, insert some small tubing in the hole and run it to another pot)

We currently use a uv light plus chlorine to treat our house water as our well is considered contaminated. ( I think I should get it tested but do not know how) I also collected rain water and run it through a Britta filter pitcher when we ran out during the freezing rain/ice storm last winter until our water line thawed. I then put a light in the pump house to keep it from freezing again. I have noted on my calendar to install a new light in November for the coming winter so it wont freeze again..

This bag is so brilliant.
This is a timely article as I pulled water from our rain barrel which is green tinted. I tried 2 methods for purifying, bleach & solar – I put it in a water bottle & had it in the sun for 6 hours. It’s said that the UV rays purify. My next major purchase will be berky filters

As I have just started, I cannot afford much yet, I have the tablets and am planning to purchase a Lifestraw, am saving up for a berkey, and have tried sunlight in a clear bottle a few times,(my kids think it’s fun). I would love to have this!

This sounds amazing. It is out of my reach financially but I would love to have one. Currently I have a supply of bleach, charcoal and sand, and my rocket stove as alternative ways to filter water. Love this site.

Currently not using anything – in our new-to-us house, we have now well water which tested just fine for drinking quality. I used to use a Brita water filter, but I read some not-so-good things about it.

I have the life straw and have used the bleach method to sanitize water. Like post above most water supply products are out of my price range. This would be a great addition to my supplies!!
Love your posts, free books, and all the xtra info you share with us!
Thank you,
Darci

At present, I have not started with water storage. I have not decided what is the best way to handle it. I do have bleach and can clean up water this way. I would be very interested in winning this purifier. Thank you for the opportunity to win.

We store water with a few drops of bleach. If that ran out we are fortunate to have a spring reasonable close by for drinking and a pond out back for animals. But I’d love to have this because the pond is closer and who knows how many others would use the spring.

We would boil for purification. We currently use well water, so unless we don’t have a power backup, or we have to bug-out, this would be our main source. Eventually we hope to get a Berkey, though…but it’s not in the budget right now.

At the moment, the only products I have ever used to purify or filter water is a brita pitcher and a sink-attachable pur filter. I definitely notice that when using them, my tap water doesn’t taste like pond water anymore. So they do something, but their overall efficiency seems lacking for sure. Doesn’t always get out all the chlorine on the days where our water treatment guys get overzealous with the chemicals. I would absolutely love to try one of these contraptions!

We currently use a two bucket system with filter and filter sock – rated for 4000 gallons of water. Does the same as a berkey, just less expensive and not as pretty. We use this on a daily basis as hubby has a sensitive tummy and can’t handle tap water or even the filtered water from the refrigerator. We also have filtered straws and purification tablets, should they be needed.

I don’t use anything for water purification but have been looking to invest as my municipality has recently started adding flouride to the water and I’m looking to detox anyway. Also, I know that having a water purification protocol is extremely important and we do go camping and hiking quite often so having something like this to bring with us would be helpful for sure!

We have some water straws, purification drops, and we store some water with small amounts of bleach in it. This SolarBag sounds like a great item to have–thanks for bringing it to our attention and giving us a chance to win one!

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MEET GAYE

I'm Gaye, just an ordinary gal trying to make sense of our changing world. I am addicted to prepping, DIY projects, adult coloring books, and ballroom dancing. I live what I call a strategic life and believe you should too. Everyone needs to prepare for the worst and live for the best. Won't you join me?

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